# Examining how visual experience modulates the thalamus and visuomotor responses.

> **NIH NIH R15** · WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $443,599

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Vision is how most organisms perceive and respond to their environment, making the development and function
of this sensory modality paramount. Visual experience is necessary to refine visual processing, a form of
experience-dependent plasticity. The majority of this refinement occurs during a brief developmental window
known as a critical period, when visual input can produce extensive changes. During the visual critical period,
the absence of visual experience is associated with amblyopia (lazy eye) in humans and impaired visual acuity.
The circuity underlying visual transformations are well established, including the cortical changes imposed by
visual experience. However, subcortical circuits (e.g. the thalamus) also exhibit a critical period and visual
experience driven changes. Compared to cortical plasticity the mechanisms instructing thalamic visual plasticity
are poorly understood. This gap in knowledge means we have an incomplete understanding for how visual
experience refines visual circuit function and processing. In established models, technical obstacles exist to
address this gap, such as anatomy (thalamus is a deep brain structure), extensive cortical feedback, and in vivo
study is complex in delicate early stage animals. Here, we use a novel visual critical period model in larval
zebrafish. The advantages to our zebrafish model are that visual plasticity can be demonstrated using a
straightforward visuomotor behavior, absence of a cortex and thalamic feedback, larvae are robust and
amendable to in vivo study, and the whole brain is optically accessible –providing a unique thalamus-centric
vertebrate model for visual plasticity. Last, our prior work has demonstrated that genetically-defined thalamic
neurons encode visual experience and display asymmetric patterns of activity that correlate with behavioral
performance. Therefore, we have a system where visual experience, thalamic physiology, and changes in the
performance of visuomotor performance can be correlated in single animals. We will use this system to determine
how visual experience instructs changes to thalamic function through the entire visual critical period until
behavioral onset (Aims 1). Changes in inhibitory signaling are well-established to regulate the duration of cortical
visual plasticity, yet the role of inhibition in the thalamus is incompletely understood. In Aim 2-3, we will take
advantage of our new system to define how visual experience modulates inhibitory input and development in the
thalamus. The zebrafish model positions us to address current gaps in knowledge about the basic mechanisms
that drive critical period plasticity in the thalamus, and to directly correlate experience with behavioral output.
The lab has an established track record of undergraduate training, productivity, and pursuing further STEM
opportunities including terminal biomedical degree training or biomedical related careers. This proposal will
support continued undergraduate ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10875846
- **Project number:** 1R15EY036226-01
- **Recipient organization:** WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric James Horstick
- **Activity code:** R15 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $443,599
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-01 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10875846

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10875846, Examining how visual experience modulates the thalamus and visuomotor responses. (1R15EY036226-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10875846. Licensed CC0.

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